It's a good sign that this topic gets fans juiced

[Forkboy]

By Bob Ryan

A persistent question whenever the subject of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball comes up is whether or not the fans really care.

The answer, at least as it applies to Globe readers, is a resounding yes.

I stuck my toe in these waters last Thursday morning and in so doing displeased a great many people who feel I was either stupid or frivolous with my take on the Sammy Sosa story, the latest in a long line of revelations concerning the use of PEDs in baseball during the last decade and a half.

In an attempt to demonstrate just how difficult it is to evaluate people who are known or suspected PED users, I tried humor (well, I thought it was funny). I suggested that since we will never know exactly to what degree PED use affected performance, we should separate Hall of Fame inductees into three categories, the first consisting of admitted users, the second of those whose denials we reasonably know to be false, and the third of those we comfortably believe are clean. We do this by color-coding the plaques.

To many, that whimsical approach bordered on sacrilege.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/articles/2009/06/21/its_a_good_sign_that_this_topic_gets_fans_juiced/

[joeybee12]

1. Some idiot wrote in the NY Times about why we shouldn't care because

the players are just doing everything they can to improve...not sure if it was just tongue-in-cheek, but it set me off. It's illegal, and the ones doing it have an unfair advantage in their improvement. Guy had to be a Stinkee-Skankee-Spankee apologist fearing more Yankee revelations.

[trumad]

2. Imagine the Babe or Dimaggio on roids...

That's me beef pure and simple....

[joeybee12]

3. The Babe was always juiced...

...too much temptation in New York for him.

[trumad]

4. Juiced with booze---LOL

I'm pretty sure that's not a performance enhancing chemical--- just ask my wife.

[joeybee12]

5. It's an NPED...non-performance enhacing drug...it's boggles the mind

how good Babe could have been had he stayed in shape and wasn't a party animal.

[AllieB]

6. He lived on hot dogs and beer-his performance enhancing drugs of choice.

:-)

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Or Ted Williams

He'd have hit a 1000 home runs and had 4500 hits! Especially if he didn't miss 5 years to wars.
GAC